Why is pleasure easily accessible in material life but not in spiritual life?

Transcript

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my question is that pleasure is our fundamental need why is it that we experience pleasure so easily in material life but pleasure seems to elude us in spiritual life in Bhakti actually it is not that pleasure eludes us in Bhakti but the pleasure of Bhakti does not conform always to our preconception of pleasure that means sometimes in Bhakti there is pleasure which is very effusive dance and sing big smile on the face more happy feel the higher we jump in Kirtans that is one way of expressing or experiencing the pleasure of Bhakti but there is only one way the pleasure of Bhakti is often not that gross it is subtle just like when people eat food with a lot of salt lot of spice, lot of sugar and if you take a vegetable also most of the time we don’t even taste the vegetable because we are tasting only the additional items which are much more perceivable to the gross taste so but if somebody decides I will not take any spice, I will not take any salt I will not take any sugar then initially when you eat the vegetable what is the point, it is so bland but once you start eating it if you are habituated to it this tastes like this there is a native taste to it but it is subtle now subtle doesn’t mean it is less enjoyable but it is of a different kind of enjoyment there is a taste there also but it is of a different kind so the pleasure of Bhakti sorry the pleasures in material life are very gross so they are directly physically perceivable so just like the taste of spices and sugars and salts so like that the tastes of material life are very gross and when we are habituated to that then in Bhakti we feel as if there is no taste only when there is some intense spiritual experience we feel there is some taste otherwise we feel it is all tasteless but even at all times there is some taste, if there had been no taste at all, none of us would have been practicing Bhakti, we just have given it up and gone back to material life so we do experience some things but it is subtle and second point is that the anarthas which we have the impurities that we have they come in the way of our perceiving the taste of Bhakti just like Rupa Goswami used the example that a jaundiced tongue cannot taste sugar then it is as sweet similarly Krishna is sweet but we cannot taste the sweet because again going back to the door example now suppose there is a beautiful garden outside the door looks this way and other side there is a whole series of trash whole lump of trash now the garden is there, the trash is there whichever side the door opens that’s what I will see so now for us most often when we practice Bhakti, Krishna is always relishable but when we say that impurities prevent us from tasting Krishna’s sweetness, what that means is the impurities obstruct our experience of Krishna because they misdirect our consciousness elsewhere so if I am coming to the temple and I am taking darshan of Krishna as beautifully but if my consciousness is not focused on Krishna but I am thinking oh in my office this happened and that happened and that happened then the consciousness is not present sukhena brahma samsparsham atyantam sukham ashnute sukhena brahma samsparsham, Krishna says that contact with Brahma ultimate Brahma is Krishna, Krishna is param Brahma so sukhena brahma samsparsham in 6.21 28 he says what happens, atyantam sukham ashnute, that will lead to the ultimate happiness, supreme happiness but because of our past conditionings that contact with Brahma doesn’t happen although I am taking darshan but the door of the mind is only partially open so that the perception goes in very little and the contact is very little that’s why the satisfaction is very little or another example, see the mother is giving some delicious sweet rice to a child but the child is so restless the mother is pouring the sweet rice but the child is moving his mouth here and there the sweet pours all over the mouth but nothing goes inside the mouth pours all over the face then the child is not going to taste anything sweet so it’s like both the mother and the child are inside us only, we are trying to force our mind to focus but the mind is not focused and we will see that if we sometimes say chanting seems very troublesome very difficult, but if we can push ourselves to chant, to concentrate gradually a taste starts getting experienced, you start experiencing a taste, so essentially it is not that bhakti the pleasure of bhakti is not accessible or not present it is just that we are too restless so at our level there are various ways in which we can curb this restlessness, one is of course the intelligence, it’s like the mother keeps the child’s face straight, like that we force the mind the other is that association of devotees if we are an association of devotees who are all seriously trying to practice bhakti then their seriousness also comes on to us they are also having their minds, their minds are also troubling them, but still they are focusing, let me also focus if they can do it, I can also do it that also helps, and third thing is apart from that, prayer we need Krishna’s help although Krishna gives us that taste, we also need the strength to access the taste, so that’s why in fact what to think of praying to Krishna there are Vaishnava poets who pray to the tongue Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Chanting Or we have the same song, famous song, bhajahure mana shinanda nandana.
Here what is the devotee doing? The devotee, Krishna, he is actually preaching to the mind. Oh my, please fix yourself on Krishna. So, basically, now that preaching to the mind is also done in the form of prayer to Krishna.
It’s a song which is praying on the glory, meditating on the glory of bhakti. Through the medium of a prayer, through the medium of instruction, through the medium of a discussion. So, whichever way it is, we can connect with Krishna, pray to Krishna for his help.
And it’s quite often these spiritual sound vibrations. Certainly the holy name is the most potent spiritual sound vibration. But other associated spiritual sound vibrations which trigger our intelligence, they are very helpful.
So, if you remember some verses, some songs, some prayers, then if the mind is wandering too much and we don’t feel any taste in the holy name, then in some other case, see the taste of the holy name is purely spiritual. In kirtan, it is spiritual and musical. But in japa, it is only spiritual.
That’s why kirtan we can very easily, we can very easily absorb in it. But japa, there is no music in it, directly. So, it becomes much more difficult because japa forces us to come to spiritual platform.
So, when we are not able to come to spiritual platform, at that time, we have to, ye na ke na prakar na mana krishna niji. Somehow or the other, access a little bit of the glimpse of the pleasure, by which you can convince the mind, there is pleasure here. By just saying Krishna, there is pleasure.
So, that way we can get a glimpse, if you are trying to chant and not able to concentrate, then just come and maybe sing Hare Krishna mahamantra, that tune that you like. One or two tunes you sing, at least it calms the mind down. Or just some favourite verses, recite those verses.
That calms the mind down. So, either emotionally or intellectually, give the mind a glimpse of Krishna. An experience of Krishna.
And then, now perceive Krishna. So, three main points. Like, there is bhakti pleasure, but it is subtler.
And second, and because of our habituation with gross pleasures, we have become sort of deadened to subtle pleasures, at present. Secondly, it is that we are, the pleasure of bhakti is there, Krishna is there, but our consciousness is misdirected. So, we don’t perceive Krishna.
And that’s why we need intelligence, we need association, we need prayer, and we also need some way to quickly access the higher text. Or to quickly give the mind an experience of the higher text. Whichever way it works out.
And that way, we can perceive. More and more, as the impurities decrease, and the misdirection will decrease, and then we will be able to relish the taste of bhakti more and more.